iPad writing app showdown: four apps enter, one app leaves

We compare iA Writer, WriteRoom, Phraseology, and Writing Kit.

It's not feasible for most folks to do their everyday work on an iPad yet, but writers seem to be one of the quickest growing groups to attempt it. It makes sense: the act of writing doesn't require that many technical resources outside of a way to input text, a way to research, and a way to save your work. In that sense, using an iPad when it's time to sit down and write can be pretty easy (for some of us, anyway). But which app to use?

This is a question that the staff at Infinite Loop find ourselves being asked often. And admittedly, it's not always an easy question to answer, because writers have different needs based on what they're writing, who they're writing for, and what they plan to do with it after they're done. I happen to know a lot of different kinds of writers, from gadget bloggers to food writers to sci-fi authors, so I held an informal poll to find out which apps they like the best. From there, I chose the four most commonly mentioned and tried them out.

So, hold on to your butts and read on for our mini-showdown between four popular writing apps on the iPad:

iA Writer for iPad (there is a separate version for iPhone) was hands-down the most-mentioned writing app when I asked for suggestions from my friends, Twitter, and even several other Ars writers. The reason became clear when I began using the app: it manages to pull off being a full-featured app with numerous bells and whistles, and a simple-looking app that doesn't come with many distractions. And for only 99¢, it's certainly priced well against the $4-5 competition.

What are those features, exactly? For one, you can store your work on your iPad, iCloud, or Dropbox—using iCloud can sync your documents seamlessly with the Mac desktop version of iA Writer (available on the Mac App Store for $8.99), but using Dropbox can sync your documents anywhere for free (or whatever price you're paying for your massive Dropbox account). The diversity of the options is nice, because it allows you to save your work to wherever's most comfortable for you, or you have the option of just storing it on the iPad and mailing it to yourself, printing, or copying/pasting to something else.

iA Writer supports plain text and Markdown (if you're into that sort of thing), but there's no Markdown preview, so that may be a deal-breaker for some. There's apparently no HTML support either—at least I couldn't find a way to export my writing as HTML, meaning that if that's the kind of output I want, I'll have to write it in plaintext. That's fine and all, but there are other apps that will convert it for me. As such, this is an extra step that I'd rather avoid, and the same applies to Markdown. Some sort of clipboard export option that supports HTML would be nice to have for writers looking to save a piece to somewhere on the Web via the iPad (without exporting it to Dropbox and then accessing it from a computer).

WriteRoom has long been a popular writing app on the Mac, but it turns out that it's popular on the iPad as well. Known for its distraction-free workspace, WriteRoom has a button (lower right corner) that lets you get rid of the other UI elements so you can focus entirely on your writing. But most of the other apps I looked at also had this feature—save for Writing Kit, which I discuss below—so this can no longer be WriteRoom's main selling point (though WriteRoom does tout the fact that it has "true" fullscreen support, sans status bar). So what else does it offer?

For one, WriteRoom was the only app that allowed me to create folders within the app in order to organize my writing. I write for Ars, but I also write for my personal blog and sometimes I even write things for a mythical book that I always tell people I'm not writing. So I don't always want to have all of my writing in one place; folders help keep things separate.

Like iA Writer, WriteRoom allows you to save documents to the iPad's own internal storage or to Dropbox, but there's not yet any support for iCloud (its FAQ says that "iCloud support is under consideration.") That would be beneficial for the reasons outlined above—being able to sync documents over iCloud with the Mac version would be great. For my purposes, Dropbox is just dandy, and the implementation works well.

WriteRoom technically only supports plaintext when composing, though it can open files that are designated as Markdown or HTML if you save them as such in Dropbox. You can't automatically export your writing in these formats, though, nor is there an easy way to copy the entire thing to clipboard as there are in other apps. (You can select all and copy/paste using the iOS copy/paste behaviors, but it requires more steps.)

One thing I do like about WriteRoom is the ability to set a passcode upon launch of the app. If you're the private type, not wanting nosy people digging through your work, this is a huge plus. I don't like the idea of a friend or family member picking up my iPad to play a game, and ending up filtering through my writings without my knowledge. To our knowledge, this is the only app of the bunch that offers such a feature.

Very nice write-up. Though I'm always surprised in comparisons of iOS writing apps that so few mobile writers consider Google Docs/Drive support and sync an essential feature in a mobile word processor (which might perhaps be why so few developers work to fulfill this need). Not for the storage, but for the fact that Docs actually is an online, browser-based word processor, and thus offers functionality Dropbox cannot hope to replicate. To me, being able to open and edit the same files either on my device or in any modern browser does wonders for my productivity, and has been a great boon in my journalistic work. Syncing to Dropbox, downloading on the computer, editing in word processor of choice, and then uploading one finished is just nowhere near as convenient or smooth to me.

(When the sharing and realtime collaboration features of Google Docs are taken into account, even if not available from any iOS word processor that I know of, Google Docs/Drive as the primary syncing and cross-platform solution swells even further in usability and importance. Even if I cannot collaborate in realtime from my iOS device, I can still read and edit the files that others work on as well, so with a little extra communication, care, and occasionally plenty of resyncing, an Docs/Drive-enabled word processor for iOS actually becomes a text collaboration platform as well.)

I've badgered plenty of devs (among them, the iA Writer fellas) for Google Docs sync in their mobile word processors/writing apps, but unfortunately, it always seems to be just beyond the distant horizon, with Dropbox sync given as the primary reasons other sync solutions are given less weight. While I can understand this for text editors for coding purposes (where, according to these devs, Google Docs/Drive apparently can mess with the formats, convert plain text files to Google's own, less desirable format, etc. However, from what I understand, Google Drive can store any file WITHOUT messing with the file type, so I'm not even sure these reasons are valid), for writing apps/word processors, I've yet to been given any reason to use Dropbox over Google Docs. Even if both are similar as storage services (though I see tons of reasons to use Drive over Dropbox in that comparison), the possibility to actually open and edit Docs text files directly in browsers (plus the realtime collaboration and the sharing), a perfect companion to an iOS writing app, should, to my mind, be reason enough to make Google Docs support a primary feature in almost ANY mobile word processor.

The main thing I cared about when choosing a word processor for IPad was the availability of arrow keys. That's pretty much the only thing that kept me from being able to write effectively with Pages.

I went on to choose IA writer, which has arrow keys. That was the prerequisite, but after that, the ICloud functionality and availability of a Mac version sealed the deal. Now after working with it extensively for a month or so, I am very happy with the solution.

Don't know about the other apps you mentioned, but I wish you would have included keyboard features in your reviews. It's such a differentiator for writers.

I use Heart Writer, because it has, not just the arrow keys, but a very clever keyboard mechanism that also gives you simultaneous access to additional navigation functions, numbers, punctuation, and more. It's the most usable iPad writing environment I've found. $1.99 and well worth it.

I agree with Google Docs being important. Not only because it's Google (which means it's everywhere) but because the pure ASCII or at most Markdown support is just not enough. A minimal consens for a word processor format is more than just Markdown and being compatible to some other environment is totally imperative. MS Office DOC is a really heavy target but what Google Docs supports is much more than nothing and you can get at it and edit it everywhere. And: There's no real WP app even Android for that! The Google Docs app from Google is a joke, it's basically nothing but a wrapper around the web app.

I think word processing works great with tablets (as long as you can use a real keyboard for actual typing lots of text), but all existing apps are more style than substance. Thinking that you can't have some useful functionality on a 10" screen when MS Word grew up on a 9" CRT with a resolution of 512×384 pixels is a joke. Even FrameMaker lived there.

No, there is really more than enough room for great writing apps on the iPad.

The main thing I cared about when choosing a word processor for IPad was the availability of arrow keys. That's pretty much the only thing that kept me from being able to write effectively with Pages.

I went on to choose IA writer, which has arrow keys. That was the prerequisite, but after that, the ICloud functionality and availability of a Mac version sealed the deal. Now after working with it extensively for a month or so, I am very happy with the solution.

Don't know about the other apps you mentioned, but I wish you would have included keyboard features in your reviews. It's such a differentiator for writers.

Getting a good Bluetooth keyboard (such as with the ZAGGfolio) can add arrow keys for Pages.

Good article on a subjective topic as it really depends on what you are doing with your writing. I personally use Evernote for for daily note taking as it can sync to my iPad, iPhone, iMac, work Win 7 laptop and personal Linux laptop. As jameskatt2, mentioned, it can handle more than just the Evernote files itself.

When I want to get down to my "serious writing" (poetry, short stories and essays), I use Storyist for that type of work. Please note, I am not a professional writer, I am a hobbyist and do it because it helps me relax and distract me. I really like the organization options it offers, as well as the ability to leverage Dropbox to sync between the iPad and my iMac version.

While I understand that Google Docs works well for some, it's a horror for me and what I do. I note from the comments that there are two quite distinct topics under discussion: writing, and word processing. Put another way: organizing thoughts and setting that down with a keyboard, and formatting/arranging/sending that result somewhere.

For some of us, the needs around organization are so critical that things like markdown, HTML, sharing with others, etc. are minuscule by comparison. I can appreciate the needs for layout power; I just want none of that around at all when I'm writing.

I need two things when I write, and most of these programs fail utterly to help me. One is a good writing environment, of which 'no distractions' is pure hype and meaningless to me. (again, yes, I know it works for some.) A good writing environment allows the fluid setting down of words. That includes all things directly related to that function: cutting and pasting, typing, dragging chunks, inserting new objects (e.g., a scene or a section), etc. I'm talking only about creating or removing logical elements of structure; there is no consideration for what they look like. <g> This means that fluidity applies to the actual settings down of words, as well as to the units of organization common to a given genre of writing.

The second is the ability to 'see' more than one level (for a fiction writer, that would be scenes and chapters) so that one can work effectively in the larger context whenever necessary. (for me: often, not quite always) This means complex things like representing multiple layers, manipulating hierarchies, incorporation of synopses, and so on. It allows me to, say, move a scene in a chapter to a new location, or to change the order of chapters, while still being able to understand what those objects contain and/or are about.

These are the hard tasks, the ones that need to be really special for a writer actively writing. Do these two things take us all the way to editing? Not quite. There is a difference between the sort of editing one does in the throes of creative frenzy, and the kind of editing one does reflectively afterwards. A writing tool should focus entirely on the kinds of editing that occur in a frenzy--and optimize them, because when one is a frenzy of inspiration, tools should not interfere; they should magically make things possible.

So this means also solving some very difficult design problems on a device that doesn't have a keyboard--or designing an iPad writing app that demands one use a keyboard. Surely, either way, there are gestures yet to be invented (or implemented; maybe someone has the right ideas already) in order to allow a writer to make the most out of the iPad.

Dictation app, anyone? I'm just beginning to experiment with that, and you know what? If only I could think as well while talking as I do when typing, I'd be there. <g>

Very nice write-up. Though I'm always surprised in comparisons of iOS writing apps that so few mobile writers consider Google Docs/Drive support essential (which might perhaps be why so few developers work to fulfill this need). Not for the storage, but for the fact that Docs actually is an online, browser-based word processor, and thus offers functionality Dropbox cannot hope to replicate. To me, being able to open and edit the same files either on my device or in any modern browser does wonders for my productivity, and has been a great boon in my journalistic work. Syncing to Dropbox, downloading on the computer, editing in word processor of choice, and then uploading one finished is just nowhere near as convenient or smooth to me.

(When the sharing and realtime collaboration features of Google Docs are taken into account, even if not available from any iOS word processor that I know of, Google Docs/Drive as the primary syncing and cross-platform solution swells even further in usability and importance. Even if I cannot collaborate in realtime from my iOS device, I can still read and edit the files that others work on as well, so with a little extra communication, care, and occasionally plenty of resyncing, an Docs/Drive-enabled word processor for iOS actually becomes a text collaboration platform as well.)

I've badgered plenty of devs (among them, the iA Writer fellas) for this functionality, but unfortunately, it always seems to be just beyond the distant horizon, with Dropbox sync given as the primary reasons other sync solutions are given less weight. While I can understand this for text editors for coding purposes (where, according to these devs, Google Docs/Drive apparently can mess with the formats, convert plain text files to Google's own, less desirable format, etc. However, from what I understand, Google Drive can store any file WITHOUT messing with the file type, so I'm not even sure these reasons are valid), for writing apps/word processors, I've yet to been given any reason to use Dropbox over Google Docs. Even if both are similar as storage services (though I see tons of reasons to use Drive over Dropbox in that comparison), the possibility to actually open and edit Docs text files directly in browsers (plus the realtime collaboration and the sharing), a perfect companion to an iOS writing app, should, to my mind, be reason enough to make Google Docs support a primary feature in almost ANY mobile word processor.

+1 Google Docs! Wrote my novel on it whilst anywhere and it was great.I agree that cut/paste/rearrange is messy on tablets/phones atm, but everything else was great.

The main thing I cared about when choosing a word processor for IPad was the availability of arrow keys. That's pretty much the only thing that kept me from being able to write effectively with Pages.

WriteRoom has a slew of navigational shortcuts that do not require extra rows added to the iPad onscreen keyboard. That's what sold me on it. Even now, I will often compose in Wr and then paste elsewhere. But Jacqui is right: having a smaller set of steps would be appreciated.

And, for me, iCloud is less important. As a longtime MobileMe subscriber, of all things, I have come to depend on DropBox and I am going to wait and see on Apple's latest cloud iteration.

or something with a decent keyboard. como'n a tablet for actually writing stuff?

Yeah I don't get it either. A tablet (without a keyboard) is simply a horrible writing experience. It really doesn't matter what tablet and what app, the input itself on a touchscreen for anything longer than a couple of sentences drives me mad.Not to mention the very limited ability to jump between the writing app and, say, a browser for research. I just don't see how anyone can be even remotely productive without a keyboard (I guess I can give up a mouse, but even that hurts productivity quite a bit).

As JustAdComics asks, 'what do you think of Pages?', seems an odd omission.

Pages isn't as much a writing app as a page layout & design app. It can be used for writing, but its main focus is formatting what you've already written.

Um, no. You can write as well in Pages as you can with anything else. The fact that you can also do formatting doesn't detract from its power as a writing app. I don't need Dropbox support, so Pages is everything I need in the word processor on the iPad.

Yeah I don't get it either. A tablet (without a keyboard) is simply a horrible writing experience. It really doesn't matter what tablet and what app, the input itself on a touchscreen for anything longer than a couple of sentences drives me mad.Not to mention the very limited ability to jump between the writing app and, say, a browser for research. I just don't see how anyone can be even remotely productive without a keyboard (I guess I can give up a mouse, but even that hurts productivity quite a bit).

It's interesting just how subjective this is. Depending on my mood, I can actually prefer typing on an iPad over my beloved laptop keyboard. And since I'm a journalist, translator, text consultant and writer of long, rambling passages of both prose and poetry, I often sit down for looong, extended writing sessions. It might sound preposterous to some, but I type very nearly as unhindered and quickly on the iPad as on a regular keyboard (and my keyboard typing speed is probably, or at least hopefully, generally very good, as is wont for anyone who has spent the past 10-15 years writing with frequency and passion on computers).

I even go for extended writing bouts on my iPhone, to the point of finishing whole chapters of novels or writing and publishing whole articles directly from the little thingie, but in that regard, I am WELL aware that I am in an extreme minority that might never be anything other than zoo-class freakish esoterica ;-)

As for multitasking, with the proper tweak installed on an Android or iOS (and probably Windows) tablet, you can multitask to your browser for research with a simple edgewise swipe. In some ways (some, mind you), that's even more convenient than a quick alt-tab.

rwodaski wrote:

While I understand that Google Docs works well for some, it's a horror for me and what I do.

On a mobile device, with the semi-broken implementations, I'm in absolute agreement Otherwise, I've found that desktop Google Docs suite ALL my writing needs, and those needs involves most forms of writing known to westernized modern man. (Hence my year-long search for the perfect iOS writing app that ALSO supports syncing to Google Docs, for desktop writing.)

Very interesting read on the divergent needs of writers, by the way. Thanks for the insight. I find that my own experience mirrors yours in many ways. Settings words down fluidly beats out distraction-less writing environments for any project I've been involved in.

In the case of seeing on several levels, moving whole scenes, changing chapter order, manipulating hierarchies and the representation of layers, though, I often eschew dedicated novelist/script software in favour of any nearby word processor, and just work with raw blocks of text. Perhaps a strange throwback, a contradictory traditionalist trait in an otherwise portability-hyped progression-junkie ;-) What is your preferred method/tool/software (regardless of platform) for handling the hard tasks you write of, from the writing environment to the micro/macro oversight?

liquidblueocean wrote:

+1 Google Docs! Wrote my novel on it whilst anywhere and it was great.I agree that cut/paste/rearrange is messy on tablets/phones atm, but everything else was great.

Would that be a whole novel written in the in-browser Docs interface on a smartphone or a tablet? That's hardcore, even for a portability enthusiastic such as me (Hence my post on the subject. I love the desktop version of Google Docs, but I find the iPhone edit interface of Docs semi-broken at best, just as you point out. Hence my constant search for writing apps with Google Docs sync support.)

For some of us, the needs around organization are so critical that things like markdown, HTML, sharing with others, etc. are minuscule by comparison.

Have you tried Daedalus? Curious how you would like it.

Daedalus is good, but I find it somewhat annoying that when you search your notes, it doesn't present a simple list of matching notes; instead, it obscures the non-matching notes, and you have to flick between matching ones.

A major annoyance of iA Writer is that it does not support offline access to notes in Dropbox, except for the one you currently have open. Daedalus does.

Although, one thing that continues to baffle me about writing on iOS: Why is RTF support such a Holy Grail? I'd love something that sits at a happy medium between the spartan writing "environments" that these apps largely are, and the heavy-handed, layout-focused tool Pages is. Something like an equivalent to TextEdit.app within MacOS: A very simple word processor that allows visible formatting in an easily transportable format.

Yes, I understand something like markup or HTML export somewhat accomplishes this, but it's still a step less transparent that something some basic formatting commands (bold, italics, underline, tabs, margin guides, etc.) and RTF support would accomplish.

You'll want to have a look at Byword if you want--Dropbox and iCloud syncing-Markdown preview and the ability to export to HTML or copy an HTML version-An iAWriter-like ability to work seamlessly between OS X and iOS versions of the app-Useful on-screen keyboard customizations (although I've seen nothing on-par with iAWriter's yet)

Liked it enough to switch away from iAWriter as my preferred editor, even though I prefer the look/feel/font of iAWriter.

or something with a decent keyboard. como'n a tablet for actually writing stuff?

Yeah I don't get it either. A tablet (without a keyboard) is simply a horrible writing experience. It really doesn't matter what tablet and what app, the input itself on a touchscreen for anything longer than a couple of sentences drives me mad.Not to mention the very limited ability to jump between the writing app and, say, a browser for research. I just don't see how anyone can be even remotely productive without a keyboard (I guess I can give up a mouse, but even that hurts productivity quite a bit).

The iPad supports any Bluetooth keyboard, which (like all iPad aftermarket accessories) there is no shortage of. Any serious writer would already have one.

or something with a decent keyboard. como'n a tablet for actually writing stuff?

Yeah I don't get it either. A tablet (without a keyboard) is simply a horrible writing experience. It really doesn't matter what tablet and what app, the input itself on a touchscreen for anything longer than a couple of sentences drives me mad.Not to mention the very limited ability to jump between the writing app and, say, a browser for research. I just don't see how anyone can be even remotely productive without a keyboard (I guess I can give up a mouse, but even that hurts productivity quite a bit).

The iPad supports any Bluetooth keyboard, which (like all iPad aftermarket accessories) there is no shortage of. Any serious writer would already have one.

Not quite true: you cannot type on any iOS device directly from a Mac laptop even NOW! Sure, if you have an external Apple keyboard you can, but for reasons entirely unexplained (except they want to sell more bloody external keyboards!) Apple have quite deliberately left this obvious keyboard-to-bluetooth connection NOT WORKING on their own laptops.

or something with a decent keyboard. como'n a tablet for actually writing stuff?

Yeah I don't get it either. A tablet (without a keyboard) is simply a horrible writing experience. It really doesn't matter what tablet and what app, the input itself on a touchscreen for anything longer than a couple of sentences drives me mad.Not to mention the very limited ability to jump between the writing app and, say, a browser for research. I just don't see how anyone can be even remotely productive without a keyboard (I guess I can give up a mouse, but even that hurts productivity quite a bit).

Loss of the mouse is a valid point. Selecting text on iOS is a real pain, making Cut & Paste a chore.

That said, I don't mind the iPad's keyboard for short bursts of writing, but I would much rather add a Bluetooth keyboard if I'm doing a lot of work.

As JustAdComics asks, 'what do you think of Pages?', seems an odd omission.

Pages isn't as much a writing app as a page layout & design app. It can be used for writing, but its main focus is formatting what you've already written.

Um, no. You can write as well in Pages as you can with anything else. The fact that you can also do formatting doesn't detract from its power as a writing app. I don't need Dropbox support, so Pages is everything I need in the word processor on the iPad.

On my 1st-gen iPad, Pages is very slow. Slow to load, occasional hitches while I'm typing. That makes takes it right out of my list for simple writing. Adding the page layout features means added bloat I don't need, and which impairs my ability to just write unhindered.

Although, one thing that continues to baffle me about writing on iOS: Why is RTF support such a Holy Grail? I'd love something that sits at a happy medium between the spartan writing "environments" that these apps largely are, and the heavy-handed, layout-focused tool Pages is. Something like an equivalent to TextEdit.app within MacOS: A very simple word processor that allows visible formatting in an easily transportable format.

Yes, I understand something like markup or HTML export somewhat accomplishes this, but it's still a step less transparent that something some basic formatting commands (bold, italics, underline, tabs, margin guides, etc.) and RTF support would accomplish.

RTF has essentially been displaced by HTML. If the app handles all the HTML in the background, it's actually a more portable format than RTF. The trick is, most apps don't keep the HTML in the background.

Not quite true: you cannot type on any iOS device directly from a Mac laptop even NOW! Sure, if you have an external Apple keyboard you can, but for reasons entirely unexplained (except they want to sell more bloody external keyboards!) Apple have quite deliberately left this obvious keyboard-to-bluetooth connection NOT WORKING on their own laptops.

Dumb, really dumb.

... I think you completely misunderstood. We're talking about using a Bluetooth keyboard to type on an iOS device, not using an iOS device to type on a Mac.

Not quite true: you cannot type on any iOS device directly from a Mac laptop even NOW! Sure, if you have an external Apple keyboard you can, but for reasons entirely unexplained (except they want to sell more bloody external keyboards!) Apple have quite deliberately left this obvious keyboard-to-bluetooth connection NOT WORKING on their own laptops.

Dumb, really dumb.

... I think you completely misunderstood. We're talking about using a Bluetooth keyboard to type on an iOS device, not using an iOS device to type on a Mac.

Seems to me like he's suggesting that it would be cool to use his laptop's keyboard as an iPad input device. Not sure why, if you've got a laptop why not just use that?

Still looking for decent, effective Microsoft word docx file support on the iPad. I'm still tethered to the windows world and failure to open and edit none but the most basic of word documents has killed any iPad office replacement hopes. I'm waiting, hopefully not in vain, until November when Microsoft release Office for iPad. Noteshelf is kinda sexy though and I do like using it.

Still looking for decent, effective Microsoft word docx file support on the iPad. I'm still tethered to the windows world and failure to open and edit none but the most basic of word documents has killed any iPad office replacement hopes. I'm waiting, hopefully not in vain, until November when Microsoft release Office for iPad. Noteshelf is kinda sexy though and I do like using it.

Google Docs. Or better yet, any reasonable RDP client. Just jump straight to your desktop from any tablet to actually get work done.

If you want the best of both worlds in one device without the chains of internet / RDP access, that is content creation and consumption, you're going to need to wait for Microsoft Surface.

People really need to take to heart the fact that iStuff is meant for consumption and that nearly every form of creation use is some kind of compromise or kludge of devices specifically and intentionally limited in their flexibility. The price, $1-5 doesn't sound like much, but why would anyone be searching, testing out, and paying for different replacements for notepad / wordpad / gedit / VIM.